I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let's turn to the book
of the Revelation and chapter 3 and we'll read verse 2, although
we'll comment on the church of Sardis. So Revelation chapter
3 and verse 2 reads, Be watchful and strengthen the things which
remain that are ready to die. For I have not found my works
perfect before God. As we perhaps know, these words
were given to the Apostle John when he was on the Isle of Patmos
and he was directed to write to the seven churches in Asia
and this church of Sardis was one of those churches. Of course the words were written
many years ago, directed to Sardis, but they are of course appropriate
to the Church of God down through the ages, and I'm sure they are
appropriate for us today. So we're told, unto the angel
of the church in Sardis write, these things saith He that hath
the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. So we have the
authority that this comes from Almighty God and therefore it
should have an effect upon us as we read it today and realize
the relevance of it and not think well it's just a word written
many years ago and therefore doesn't have an application to
us today. Well the first statement really
is is very direct. The Word of God is very direct.
And we're told this, I know thy works that thou hast a name that
thou livest and art dead. Well that's very straightforward
isn't it? And it's a word to all of us
and indeed today we live in a sad day really when there is many
who just live their religion just to have a name and to try
and make a name for themselves. But in reality they do not possess
the true work of the Spirit in their souls and therefore the
statement is sadly true and are dead. Now someone who is dead
has no life and that's precisely what this word is speaking about. those who just have an outward
profession, just a pretense of being a Christian, just satisfying,
we might say, their own ego, and yet they are not possessors
of the life of God in their soul. And what a wonderful, wonderful
blessing it is if you and I have the evidence that we possess
the life of God in our soul. And that means the life which
God has given us. That means that we have been
made spiritually alive. That means that we've been born
again of the Spirit of God. And how utterly essential it
is, and how little it is perhaps thought about today, how many
people are not really concerned about the life of God in their
souls. They're satisfied with the life
of God by their own works, the things that they do. But there's
no real cry for spiritual life and no evidence of spiritual
life. Because if there is the evidence
of spiritual life, it must have an effect. It will be evidenced
who we are and whom we serve. And we should go about not desiring
to please ourselves, not desiring to do our own will, but we will
always be concerned to do the will of God and to follow his
gracious and wonderful example. And so we are encouraged in the
Word of God always to examine ourselves. Examine ourselves. I sometimes think of that exceeding
solemn character in the Word of God called Judas Iscariot. You see, he lived three years
with the Lord Jesus, with the other eleven disciples, and from
all outward appearance, he would have seemed to be a good man. He had a name to live. He was
a treasurer. He looked after the money. He
was a trusted person. But the reality was, he was dead. There was no life, no spiritual
life. And therefore it matters not
really what we may pretend to be, it's what we really are. And whether we do possess the
wonderful blessing of the life of God in our souls. And we'll
come on to that in more detail a bit later. We're just passing
over verse 2 for the moment and coming on to verse 3. We're told,
remember therefore how thou hast received and heard. Well, again, it's necessary for
us to be able to remember. Remember what God has done for
us. Remember what God has spoken
to us. And to therefore remember how
we've received and how we've heard. Again, we think of many
people today as they gather for worship. How do they, how do we, receive
the Word of God that we've heard? Many people come and hear the
Word of God. We've often heard the Word of
God. Well, have we received it into
an honest heart? Has it had a good and gracious
effect upon us? Or do we forget what we've heard
as soon as we go outside the doors? And especially, perhaps,
when we come to the end of the Lord's Day, we kind of, as it
were, put off our religion and carry on with the things of time. To the true believer, to the
born-again believer, religion isn't something that you and
I want to pick up and put down. It is our life. And that is, as it were, 24-7. I know we have to work, of course,
in the world. I know we have to be involved
in the things of time. Nothing wrong with that. That's
clearly how we are to live our life. But nonetheless, are our
thoughts God-ward? Are our thoughts Heaven-ward?
Do we meditate on the things that we've heard? Do we receive
them? So that as we start Monday morning
and have to enter into all the things of time, and the things
of God forgotten, and they cast aside, I sometimes think it's
a good test of our religion, you know, and to how we fed and
profited from the word as we come to another Lord's Day, ask
the question, well, what happened last Sunday? What happened last
Sunday? What did the minister preach
from? What was the word? Did it have an effect upon our
souls? Well, most people would say they'd forgotten. It was
passed over. And therefore, they'd received
it, but perhaps only in their head. It hadn't truly benefited
their souls. And yet, the word of God tells
us here, and hold fast. Hold fast the words of sound
doctrine. Let them not go. You see, our
adversary the devil, he wants us to occupy ourselves just on
time things. He doesn't want us to remember
the things of God. And he doesn't want us, therefore,
to hold fast. He wants us to let them go, to
throw them away. But bless God that we have a
word of God to encourage us and to direct us in the right way. And so we have this step and
hold fast and repent. What a blessing it is when God
gives us a true spirit of repentance to be truly sorry for our sins,
to be really sorry for the wrong things we do, to be really sorry
For the things when we turned our back on the things of God. To be really sorry for our lack
of spirituality. To be really sorry for the times
when we haven't read the Word of God when we should have done.
You know it's a blessing when God then brings us to that wonderful
position of repentance over these things and not to just ignore
them and carry on in this world. And then he says, therefore thou
shalt not watch. Watching comes back to the second
verse, but here we just mention it. If therefore thou shalt not
watch. And again, are we watching? Are we watching? Are we waiting
for the Lord's return? If the Lord was to come in all
his glory today, would we be watching for him? Would we be
looking for Him? Or would we be so surprised and
taken aback? We wouldn't be ready, and in
actual fact we didn't want to leave the world anyway, because
here we were, settled down, happy in this poor old world. What a blessing, if we are found
therefore watching. It's an instruction from the
Word of God to the Church of God. We are to watch. We are
to wait. We are to watch for the Lord,
and to seek his appearing, and to seek his blessing. And he
comes and tells us here, if therefore thou shalt not watch. If we're
not watching, what's gonna happen? The Lord said, I will come upon
thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come
upon thee. We don't want God to come, do
we? When we're not prepared. We don't want God to come when
we're not prepared to die. None of us know how short our
life is. We have many evidences, don't
we, of the shortness of life. You think of that bridge in Italy.
There were those people traveling along quite happily, and suddenly
they were in eternity. So here we have this statement,
I will come on thee as a thief and shall not know what hour
I will come upon thee. And so how we need to be ready
don't we? And the word goes on thou hast
a few names even in Sardis. Now Sardis of course was years
previously a very prosperous city, perhaps one of the most
prosperous cities in the world. several centuries before the
Lord came. And then it gradually decreased
and it had an enormous earthquake in AD 17 which decimated the
whole town and the area. It never really recovered from
that position. But nevertheless here we have
a statement that has a few names even in Sardis. Now what a blessing
if you and I numbered amongst those who are the true worshippers,
who are the few who are watching, who are the few who are waiting,
the few who know the Lord as their all-sufficient Saviour,
the few who know they possess the life of God in their soul.
Because this addresses such. Thou hast a few names even in
Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. And they shall
walk with me in white, for they are worthy." That doesn't mean
to say, of course, that you and I are worthy in and of ourselves. But we're only worthy because
of what Christ has done for us. That's why the Church of God
unites in that cry, worthy is the Lamb. We're not worthy in
ourselves. but we are worthy through what
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, has done for us. They shall walk
with me in white, for they are worthy. And then, he that overcometh,
the same shall be clothed in white raiment. Again, how do
we overcome? By our own strength, by our own
ability. The Word of God tells us. and
they overcame through the blood of the Lamb. That's how you and
I overcome. Overcome our great adversary,
the devil. We overcome through what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done as that great and glorious Saviour. Well, what do we think of the
Lamb of God this morning? The John the Baptist said, didn't
he, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. My friends, you and I need that
grace by faith to behold the Lamb of God that's taken away
our sin. And it's only through his shed
blood upon the cross at Calvary. He that overcometh. We are more
than overcomers through Him. Oh, what a blessing it is today.
If you and I have the wonderful testimony, evidence, that that's
where we are. Not resting in what we've done,
but resting in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Because
there surely is our hope for the things of time and our hope
for eternity. And how relevant it is that you
and I are concerned about our eternal state. We're often over-concerned
about our natural state, aren't we? The things that we do, the
things that we eat, and where we live, what car we drive and
so many things like that which are really just passing. But
all were to be numbered amongst those who are overcomers through
Christ. To know then that our eternal
state is secure and therefore when we leave this earth it will
be to go and to be with Christ which is far better. Wonderful
when the Holy Spirit directs us to see that that truth is
such that it is far better. The Apostle Paul said, didn't
he? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, that's a good question,
isn't it, for us? He said, for me to live is Christ. Is that true in our life? is
Christ, the one that we love to hear about, love to speak about. And so he
that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name
as the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father
and before his angels. It surely is an amazing blessing,
isn't it? It's a necessary blessing. It's
a wonderful favour. It's a favour that none of us
deserve. Let's be quite clear about that. Because of our state by nature,
because of the original sin which we inherited, from our father
Abraham, father Adam, because of his sin, and Eve's in the
Garden of Eden. We are all sinners, we are born
in sin, and shapen in iniquity. And we deserve to be left in
that state, and to end up in hell with no hope. But what a
mercy, what a blessing then today, if you and I have the wonderful
evidence that such a word applies to us, that we are clothed in
white raiment. And this, of course, must be
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to realise
that all our righteousnesses, which we may be very pleased
about, the Bible tells us are as filthy rags. There's no value
in them. but to have this spoken, to take
away all the filthy garments, the filthy rags, and to be clothed
with this righteousness of Christ, to cover our nakedness. What
a glorious truth it is. What a wonderful thing. And how
undeserving we are, isn't it, of course, to praise God and
to think here that by His grace, free unmerited favour of God,
we shall be clothed in a white raiment. And also, we won't have
our name blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life. Oh, how essential
it is that your name and my name is in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then to have this tremendous
statement, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His
angels. Just think of that. Before Almighty
God. It's good just to ponder for
a moment the wonder of it, to think that the second person
in the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and
glory, takes notice of such small insignificant
people on the earth and indeed such sinners who don't deserve
any notice at all and yet to think that this blessed saviour
loved us so much he died in our place it took upon him All our
sins, our sins were imputed, put upon Him. And in
exchange He took and imputed His righteousness to us. What
an exchange! And then we have this tremendous
statement. I will confess His name before
my Father. We have nothing to fear, do we? If this is true, we have nothing
to fear because it is well with our soul and to think the glorious
Redeemer will indeed confess our unworthy
name to his Father and tell him, I died. for this unworthy person. I've loved him or her with everlasting
love. I've drawn him or her with loving
kindness. I've redeemed them. They are
mine. And so we shall then be accepted
in the Beloved. Well, such is the wonderful favour
and a glorious lot of those if we are numbered amongst the few
names even in Sardis. Well now reverting then to this
second verse. Having spoken in this way I know
thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead
Then he says, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain
that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before
God. Well, we have two statements
here. The Lord says we are to be watchful
and we are to be strengthened. Well, it means that first of
all, perhaps we have not been watchful, And also it means that
we need to be strengthened. Be watchful and strengthen the
things that remain. And clearly that shows to us
that we need strengthening. And that means really we are
weak. We're weak. And perhaps we have in ourselves
that which needs to be eradicated, that illness, that sickness. I'm talking now, of course, of
spiritual life, not a natural life. There may be that, of course,
in our natural life and nothing against that because we know
the Lord can come and can strengthen our bodies naturally. But more
essentially, it relates really to our spiritual life. that we
can easily become weak. Sometimes we don't always know
it, we're not always aware of it. Our strength has been gradually
taken away, whittled away. You may say, well, what is the
cause of that? Well, the cause of that is very
simple and it's very obvious really. It is this. It's the inroad of sin. It's the inroad of the world. It's allowing the things of this
world to enter into our life, our spiritual life, so that we
gradually become weaker in the things of God. We find ourselves
more apt to involve ourselves in things that do not profit. We're apt to look at the things
of the world and become covetous about them. And therefore, they
attract us. And rather than being attracted
to the glorious gospel and our savior, we find there's been
inroads into our soul. And we find, therefore, that
we are not as we should be. and therefore we become weak. Now, spiritually, if you and
I are weak, what do we need? Well, we need spiritual food,
don't we? We need spiritual food. You know,
usually that comes about by producing a hunger. Sometimes there is
that weakness and there's knowledge that we are weak. Well, it's
a good thing when the Holy Spirit comes shows to us that we are
in need, and shows to us then our need and that produces a
hunger, a hunger for the things of God. It's a great blessing
when you and I are more hungry for the things of God than we
are for our natural food. Now we're all, I'm sure, keen
on food. Nothing wrong in that in itself,
as long as we're not gluttons and just eat for the sake of
eating. But we're thankful God does provide
food. And in, of course, the environment
in which we're in, there's plenty. And there's nobody really that
goes without food in our country today, for which we're thankful.
But we're really speaking here of that which is so needful,
spiritual food, strength in our body. You think of the children
of Israel when they were traveling through the wilderness naturally
they required food every day and God provided it in the form
of manna. Very simple nothing extravagant
but adequate for their needs and so it is in the life of the
spiritual Church of God. It's a good thing if we are hungry
and thirsty for simple food, not a question of making demands
upon God, saying, well, I want this blessing and I need this
blessing. You don't know what you really need. You think you
do. We think we do. God knows. And it's a good desire
to come off and think like that little prayer of Jabez, recorded
in the Chronicles, when he simply said, O that thou wouldest bless
me indeed and enlarge my coast. He didn't go into a long preamble
about what that was he had ideas of. He was just very simple,
because he knew that God would supply his need and supply his
Spiritual need supplies spiritual hunger and thirst. Well, have
you and I a hunger and thirst for the things of God? Or are
we weak and not concerned and don't know it? Many people today
don't realise their weakness, don't realise where they really
are. And they carry on in their life,
far off from God. What a dangerous position that
is. Dear old Peter, you know, was a godly man, wasn't he? But
what happened? He followed her far off. He didn't
keep close to the Saviour, followed her far off. And then you see
when his religion was tested, how sadly he fell. Oh my friends,
may we be kept close to the Saviour. Keep close to the Saviour. We
have that wonderful statement by the Saviour himself when he
said, come unto me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. That meant there was some satisfaction
to be received. My friends, may God give us grace
to come to the blessed Saviour when we are heavy laden and burdened
because of our wandering from God, wandering away. It's easy to wander away It's
not so easy to come back. And I'll illustrate that like
this. To backslide means to slide backwards. So you imagine a slope, a slippery
slope, and it's quite easy to slide down that slope. It's not
so easy to climb back up it. Because we probably make many
slips, on the journey back up. So my friends, don't think that
it's just a very easy thing. You see, when we backslide, that
means when we're left to our own devices, that means we follow
our own fleshly desires, that means when we walk away from
God, that means we want to satisfy the lust of the flesh. And we
don't do those things which are pleasing to God. We find then
we're in a barren state, we're weak, and we have no strength
really to recover our position. We need the Lord then to come.
We need God to come and to strengthen us and support us, indeed to
take us by the hand, to bring us back to himself. Be watchful and strengthen the
things which remain. We need to strengthen them, the
things which do remain, and maybe just a few things. And we may
say, well, I still pray. That's a good thing. But my friends,
how do we pray? Again, is it just a mere formality? just running through a list of
things which just come from our head rather than our heart? Or
do we come to our God, pouring out our heart before Him? It's a wonderful favour to be
able to come to God like that. God knows about us. We may have
got weak, we may not have been praying really, we may have thought
we were, We didn't realise how weak we were. What a blessing
when God comes in and strengthens us. And once again we are able
to return, return in true prayer to our God, to come unto him
and to realise what a blessing it is. Isaiah speaks of that
in the 41st chapter. chapter he speaks about being
strengthened and what a mercy it is when the Lord comes and
does indeed strengthen us and the 41st chapter of Isaiah and
the 10th verse we're told this, fear thou not for I am with thee
be not dismayed for I am my God I will strengthen thee yea I
will help thee Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness. What it means is this, we come
to the Lord needy, we realise our weakness, we realise we've
perhaps backslidden, we're far off from God, but all then to
know we have such an encouraging word as this, as we stand before
God, pleading for his mercy, and he says, fear thou not, for
I am with thee, be not dismayed, which we may be, be not dismayed,
and the reason, for I am thy God, and I will strengthen thee,
yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with thy right hand
of my righteousness. What a wonderful truth it is
to have the I wills by God in the Word of God, to encourage
us. This is the God, the Almighty God that you and I have to deal
with. But what a comfort it is to know that He is a God who
hears and prays. Therefore, as we come to our
God in our weakness, needing to be strengthened, we can come
to Him, can't we? We can plead for His mercy. and for his grace and for his
love toward us. I sometimes think of that Psalm
of David and the 40th Psalm, very beautiful words when he
comes and explains to us where he was and he tells us, I waited
patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my
cry. It's a good thing when you and
I have perhaps wandered away from God to then come back and
to be given that grace to wait patiently. When the Spirit of
God shows us what we deserve to be cut off, to be forgotten,
to be cast away, to think of that, then he waits patiently
for the Lord. And he inclined unto me and heard my cry. And what happened? He brought
me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set
my feet upon a rock, established my goings, and he hath put a
new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see
it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man
that maketh the Lord his trust. and respect is not the proud
nor such as turn aside to lies. And we could go on. You read
it at your home. Psalm 40 is a very beautiful psalm. It's
very instructive. And be watchful then and strengthen
the things which remain. Well may God help us to perhaps
strengthen our prayer life. And then you know to strengthen
our faith as we read the word of God. Again how easy it is
to not read the Word of God. How easy it is to pick up something
else, a magazine or the newspaper or whatever else it might be,
and rather than picking up the Word of God, be watchful and
strengthen the things which remain. Yes, that desire that we have
perhaps in our heart to read God's Word, There's no more blessed
occupation than reading the Word of God, because that'll strengthen
our souls. And I'll tell you why. Because
if you read the Word of God, you'll find in the Word of God
people who are in the same position and situation that you find yourself. And that'll be an encouragement.
To realise that you are not a stranger. You may have thought you were.
You may have thought you were out of the secret. You may have
thought there was no life in your soul. But read the Word
of God and trace out the lives of God's people and find out
there, oh, I can come alongside that person. I understand why
that's been recorded to encourage and strengthen me. And what's
the effect? We're strengthened. We're strengthened. We don't
want to remain weak and wishy-washy in the things of God. We want
to be alert. We want to be strong. We want
to do those things then which will honour and glorify our God.
I hope we do. I hope our concern is to live our
life for the honour and glory of God. What does that mean? That means
not pleasing ourselves. And if you and I need an example,
we have a wonderful example in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
I refer to it often, but it's worth referring to. We read of
the Lord Jesus Christ these words, He pleased not himself. What did he do? He did the will of his Father. My friends, we have the will
of our God recorded in the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Are we concerned to do the will
of our Father in Heaven? Or that it might be so that we
might be moved mightily? And so, be watchful and strengthen
the things which remain. And you see, to do this, without
any doubt, will be costly to our natural self. The life of
the Christian never has been, never will be, easy. It is for
those who are pseudo-Christians. There's no cost involved. They
carry on. They're satisfied with their
religion. They don't possess the God-given
religion. But you see those who are true
followers of the Lord Jesus Christ follow this pattern. They take up their cross daily
and follow him. Not just on a Sunday or Lord's
Day when we turn up to worship, it's every day. And that religion
is very important because we desire to honour and glorify
our Saviour. Oh, that One who has given His
life that we might live, be watchful
and strengthen the things that remain, He says, that are ready
to die. Yes, perhaps in our lives, they're
fading away. We become weak. The world's crept in. The world's
crowded in. The things of time are occupying
us and we're almost ready to die. Well, bless God, none of
his people will ever die spiritually because he's died to save their
souls. And we are redeemed with His
precious blood and we will never be lost. But nonetheless, that
are ready to die. We've got such a weak state. Such a weak state, ready to die. What a sad scene that is. And
how therefore we should be thankful we have the Word of God to point
such a situation out to us. So we don't just carry on aimlessly
in this world. But we put first things first.
And that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one thing needful. The one thing needful. Remember
what the Bride of Christ said in the Song of Solomon, when
she described the Lord Jesus Christ very simply, very beautifully,
very powerfully. He is the chiefest among ten
thousand and the altogether lovely. Now that expression will test
our religion. You see, if you and I are travelling
through this life, we're on a journey. My friends, we pray and we trust
that we're going home to glory. And that would be to go on to
be with Christ and to honour him and praise him. throughout
eternity. So may we therefore, if we are
very weak, let us come and be blessed with that living desire
to come confessing our sins. It's a great blessing. It's not
easy. It's not easy to truly confess sin. It's not easy to
say, Lord, I've been a terrible backslider. Lord, I've sinned
against light and knowledge. Lord, I turn my back upon thee.
What a blessing it is when the Lord enables us to do that because
the Word of God tells us in the first epistle of John, the first
chapter, the ninth verse, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the promise of God. What a wonderful strength that
will be when you and I are brought to that position. And so he comes
and tells us then, For I have not found thy works perfect before
God. Not found thy works perfect.
Now also this word perfect can also mean fulfilled. Think about
it in that term, for I have not found thy works fulfilled before
God. And again, may that be a question
in our lives as to if we are fulfilling that which God directs
us to and instructs us in, or if we've left many things undone
because of what it might cost us It is a cost, but the cost is
this, we are united to Christ, and that's a blessed path. There's no greater thing than
to know union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and to desire that his
name be lifted up and honoured and glorified. Well, we have
this account here, about the church at Psidas, relevant to
all of us, relevant to many today in the world, who carry on unconcerned,
thinking they are those who are named to live and yet are dead. But may we come before God and
take this word and pray over it and desire that we might be
watchful and that we might be able, by God's grace, to strengthen
the things which remain, and are ready to die. For I have
not found thy works perfect before God. Amen.